Pied Piper of Hamelin – Artie Shaw

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln also known as the Pan Piper, the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the subject of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages.The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored (“pied”) clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his power that he put in his instrument on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has also appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning, among others. The Pied Piper has also sometimes thought to have been, or associated with, the Norse God Odin, or the Anglo-Saxon variant Woden.

Some theories have been proposed suggesting that the Pied Piper was a symbol of hope to the people of Hamelin which was attacked by plague. He moved all the rats out from the town of Hamelim and thus saving the people from the epidemic disease. There are many contradicting theories about him.